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May 21, 2010

Play Pac-Man on Google's Homepage

Google's doodles start to become more interactive. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google created a doodle that lets you play the game. Go to Google's homepage and the game starts automatically after 10 seconds.

"Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is universally considered as one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of the 1980s popular culture."

I wonder how many people will forget why they visited Google's homepage and will start playing Pac-Man. The worst part is that the sound can't be turned off and it will surprise or annoy a lot of Google users. "If you're not a Pac Man fan or want to skip the music and lights, just enter you search query as usual and you'll be directed to our normal search results page. Other options include: closing your browser, turning the volume down or off on your computer, playing Pac Man all day long," suggests a Google employee. You can also disable Flash for google.com or use FlashMute, a software for silencing Flash sites. Google should have turned off the sound by default or at least should have provided an option to disable the music. The good news is that the game doesn't start if you type a query in the search box.





Update: The CoolPreviews extension for Firefox preloads Google's homepages, so you'll hear the Pac-Man sound even if you don't visit Google's homepage. The latest version, which can be downloaded from coolpreviews.com, fixes the problem.

Update 2: The sound is now disabled by default and you can only hear it when you start playing the game. The Pac-Man doodle replaces Google's logo for 48 hours.

50 comments:

  1. You can even play with a friend (or alone if you feel strong enough!) by clicking "Insert Coin" twice. The second player moves using the W, A, S, D keys.

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  2. pacman is my most favourite game.thanks google for bringing it up again. :-)

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  3. Friend of mine was on the phone with a client and went to google something and the music pops up, she accuses him of playing a video game instead of trying to help her. LOL. He smoothed it over but I wonder if anyone will get fired over this...

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  4. That is so damn annoying. How do I disable the sound?

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  5. The Doodle for today is written in HTML (not sure if it's HTML5 or not), rather than Flash. Pretty cool stuff! I'm awful at Pac Man, but I won after dying twice. Oh well.

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  6. That's true, but Google still used Flash for playing music:

    http://www.google.com/logos/swf/pacman10-hp-sound.swf

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  7. Pacman without the music?? get real!! Either mute or turn your volume down. jeeeeeeeeez
    The GREATEST Google doodle yet and people want to bitch about it.

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  8. The sound won't stop even if I change pages.

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  9. Brings back old memories..

    Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary

    Thanks!!! I sure which they do Super Mario Bro. :)

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  10. If you click "Insert Coin" again, you can play with Ms. Pac-man, too!

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  11. What's bizarre about all these Google logo articles is that nobody mentions that you can play two player (with the WSAD keys and arrow keys acting as separate controls).

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  12. Does anybody knows how to get it saved to play it offline. That would be great!
    Sabine

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  13. You can't save it like a browser saves pages, sadly. Someone was being too clever; maybe some resource paths are relative and created in javascript.

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  14. I usually love everything Google does; however, this logo, which automatically starts playing audio, is incredibly idiotic.

    Who thought this was a good idea?

    People are complaining about this across the web, and there is still no solution even after hours of outrage from users.

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  15. If you want to download the game, try this:
    http://www.underealm.com/download/GooglePacman.zip

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  16. Wow,no one told me that Pac-Man fever reoccur again after 30 years lying dormant. My sound doesn't work on my computer yet I still enjoyed this as much as the first time so many years ago.

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  17. http://www.google.com/Top/Games/Video_Games/Action/P/Pac-Man_Games/Downloads/

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  18. is it really that hard to turn off the volume on your computer? two clicks, ok?

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  19. This is the ONLY and MOST annoying thing that Google has ever done. I cringe every time I have to go to the home page and see a video game. I was on a business call and the game starts up. This totally unprofessional.

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  20. If anyone wants to save the Google Pac Man logo to play offline, you can download it here:
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I8DKU2UM

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  21. (not the same person as above)
    Good start... now somebody get the sound back in there! Please?

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  22. in the offline version dont work the sounds

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  23. Pacman is awesome thanx google!

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  24. Well, it seems that Google has added a button to turn off the sound. Besides, it now enables the sound after you started playing this game.

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  25. to make sound work....go to
    http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
    Edit locations
    Add location
    Browse for folder
    OK
    Always allow

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  26. choose Google Pacman folder of course

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  27. WOW!!! thanks for the sound flash thing, works like a charm when downloaded on to computer!!! swwweeeettt... I played this back when pac-man first came out... gosh am I that old??? Thanks google!!

    Now just bring out a google Dragon's Lair and I will be VERY impressed!!!

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  28. Now there is an Volume on / off option. and if you click insert coin twice you can play with WASD and Up, right, left, down

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  29. when i play the offline version. its slow how can i make it fast? thanks

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  30. More info about the Pac-Man Doodle at

    http://pacmanmuseum.com/news

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  31. This is very annoying. I don't appreciate being forced to see PacMac each time of go to the Home Page of Google. I have tried everything to get it off to no avail. Guess I'll change my home page back to Yahoo! Sorry Google, our love affair did not last long. Good Bye!!!

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  32. Aha! So they did use Flash--for sound.

    It looks like this really proves that Pac Man *is* a classic; people love playing it even on Google's homepage!

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  33. I LOVE the PacMan!!!!!!!!!! How cool is that? Can I buy it as an app for my iPhone?

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  34. People reporting traumatic hour long events due to the sound not coming off

    http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2010/05/google-pac-man-keeps-going-and-going.html

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  35. Can't beat the 1st level of Pacman on Google's logo? Check out my modified version! http://ChadAyers.org/Google.html

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  36. This is awesome! I can't believe that some grumpy/sinister characters are complaining about it !!!
    This hapilly revive my good ol'memories from my teen years when I was playing my pocket money at the arcade or playing on my Atari 800XL!!!
    30yrs already! wow !!!
    Well Happy Birthday dear Pacman and thanks so much Google !!!

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  37. You can save your record pacman google on this page

    http://www.millionthanksbook.com/pacman.php

    before the google pacman logo go away !!!

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  38. Well, here's a portable version of Google Pacman, with the latest toggle sound button:
    http://download.kinguploader.com/Download.aspx?15103#Pacman.rar

    And this is a modified version with which you can embed this game on your website by adding one line of code:
    http://download.kinguploader.com/Download.aspx?15104#Pacman_embed.rar

    NOTE: The sound won't load unless you upload them to a web server.

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  39. Yea IF you dont like the google logo, i say eat shittttttttt.....Its coooooool!XD

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  40. After years of using Google, Im off to another search engine..what a dumb stupid thing to force on people,

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  41. It was funny, childish, brash and a little irresponsible. Googlers probably loved it, but it's surprising that they didn't realize that autoplaying music is impolite.

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  42. PAC MAN IS GONE!!! BRING IT BACK!

    Hey you dummies complaining about "the sound." Well, why don't you turn it off?

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  43. Pac-man may be permanently posted online with Google at www.google.com/pacman , but what about for those who have no internet connection? Yes there are folders you can download and adobe flash players to configure so you can have sound, but there is a totally easier way. As long as you don't mind a torrent file as I have no other recourse to share it! It is under 1 MB in size.

    I’ve got (so far, as far as I know) the only installable offline version of Google Pac-man with sound working 100%, no tricks, and I’ve removed everything that is not the game itself. The game’s background is now black, and I’ve put it into an installer which uses a portable browser to host the sound properly. It’s in torrent form because I don’t know anyone to help me host it, but here is a link to my (absolutely guaranteed clean) torrent at TPB:

    http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5585343/Google_Pac-man_30th_B-Day_%28sound_working_100_%29

    (copy/paste the above into your address bar)

    ..any questions or if you’re willing to host this thing please contact me at:

    blackwidowfarms (at) hotmail.com

    or email me directly from my website:

    http://www.AaronBewzaMusic.com

    I’m not one of the devs that are trying to take advantage or trick anyone lol I just wanna share this awesome Google Pacman in a form anyone can install and use... whether they have an internet connection or not. thx! :)

    Aaron

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  44. I want to play it badly but they keep asking for dowmloads.

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  45. SO old game.. I like it

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  46. What I can say is that there is nothing better than this : http://www.pacman.com.pl/

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